Parker Latitude Review

[Dan Carmell]

The Latitude appears to be the successor model to the recently discontinued Inflection, although at a lower price point. It comes in several finishes, but I bought the simple stainless steel model for my Parker Flighter collection. This new Parker follows the general trends of the Inflection: the slanted cap ends and barrel and cap tassies, wide feathering of the arrow clip (albeit with the feathers in metal and integrated with the length of the clip), and the same general size and body shape.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v255/dcarmell/gggLI.jpg

 

The Latitude Flighter does not sport the cap grooves of the blue and black lacquered models. At this time, the Latitude Flighter is only offered with chrome trim, while the Inflection was only offered with gold plated trim (purists, by the way, do not deem a stainless steel model with other than gold filled or plated trim to be a true Flighter, following the model of the original Parker Flighter, the 51). But the Latitude, in spite of its lower price, does have nicer chrome tassies on cap and barrel, compared to the plastic ones on the Inflection.

 

When I got my Inflection I had to straighten the teardrop shaped cap tassie, which was mounted crookedly. I also had to sand the plastic mold seams on the section--they were rough and very noticeable. On the Latitude, the chrome tassies are well mounted and while there are seams on the section, they are not anywhere nearly as apparent as with the Infection.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v255/dcarmell/ggLIclips.jpg

 

On the Inflection, the "cap band" is actually part of the barrel and the cap snaps onto a plastic ridge on the section near the nib. The Latitude also appears to snap--with a crisp, audible snap--onto a similar section ring, but it has a highly polished cap lip and the chromed barrel ring is almost invisible.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v255/dcarmell/hLInibs.jpg

 

It's the nib that are most different between these two models. The Inflection has a gold-plated nib that is semi-hooded, giving an appearance something like that of the Parker 45 nib. The Latitude's polished steel nib is an open one, rather stubby nib, similar to nibs on some of Parkers lower end pens. The feeds are molded differently as well.

 

Please note that this review is an excerpt from a larger article I am writing about Parker Flighter. I can't give you the most important part of this review, which would be how the Latitude writes. It arrived with a medium nib, as most lower end Parkers do, and I plan to send it to Parker for a nib swap to F or EF, so I cannot ink the pen prior to sending it back to Janesville. Oh, one other little difference: the Inflection was made in the UK and the Latitude is made in France.

 

Finally, if you want to see some better photos of the Latitude, including the blue and black versions, as well as a review that includes a few words on how it writes, take a look at Bill Riepl's Stylophiles review:

 

http://www.stylophilesonline.com/11-05/11lat.htm

 

 

best regards, Dan

[ballboy]

On the Latitude, the chrome tassies are well mounted and while there are seams on the section, they are not anywhere nearly as apparent as with the Infection.

 

Nice comparison there: didn't know they were re modeling it already.

 

Maybe here in the UK, they couldn't cure the Infection, so they gave it some Latitude ^_^

Edited April 23, 2006 by ballboy

[pjturyk]

Thanks for the review - I thought I could chime in my 2c worth:

 

I bought my Latitude in Warm Grey (from Lewertowski) to match a ballpen I purchased in Cologne in Dec 06.

I thought the ballpen was a good writer (good balance, decent quality, solid mostly metal construction) and I wanted a "matching set".

To my eye, the darkish grey offsets both the black "lines of latitude" and the chrome trim - understated but somewhat classy.

The fountain pen cap and barrel are similar decent quality metal to the ballpen, but the feed holder has the feel of cheap plastic, even more so than the Sonnets.

The balance is okay, but the metal barrel slightly overpowers the plastic nib section.

Stylophile got it right regarding the stiff feel of the nib, but once it gets flowing, it's a surprisingly smooth everyday writer.

It puts down, a consistent wet line, although the M nib is slightly broader than M.

One issue is starting after sitting for even a short time, but, again, once flowing it's okay.

At 30GBP, it was not a great value, but still has the promise of a durable pen that will probably stand up to some rough handling (it already has with me!).

Peter T.

[dpmahon]

Thanks for the review - I thought I could chime in my 2c worth:

 

I bought my Latitude in Warm Grey (from Lewertowski) to match a ballpen I purchased in Cologne in Dec 06.

I thought the ballpen was a good writer (good balance, decent quality, solid mostly metal construction) and I wanted a "matching set".

To my eye, the darkish grey offsets both the black "lines of latitude" and the chrome trim - understated but somewhat classy.

The fountain pen cap and barrel are similar decent quality metal to the ballpen, but the feed holder has the feel of cheap plastic, even more so than the Sonnets.

The balance is okay, but the metal barrel slightly overpowers the plastic nib section.

Stylophile got it right regarding the stiff feel of the nib, but once it gets flowing, it's a surprisingly smooth everyday writer.

It puts down, a consistent wet line, although the M nib is slightly broader than M.

One issue is starting after sitting for even a short time, but, again, once flowing it's okay.

At 30GBP, it was not a great value, but still has the promise of a durable pen that will probably stand up to some rough handling (it already has with me!).

Peter T.

Might want to seal the air hole under the clip of the cap with wax.

[Ovidius]

I bought my Latitude about four months ago and I have not stoped using it since. It is a good everyday writer, and I love the wet nib, although the pen uses a lot of ink as a result. I find that by filling a used cartridge with bottled ink, the capacity is acceptable, but with the supplied slide converter the pen only has enough ink for a day or two's worth of frequent writing.

 

With the flow, I find that the line is closer to a Pelikan B than the M on my Parker Reflex. The pen only comes in an M, but other nib sizes are available separately. The only problem is that the replacement nibs cost about 50% of the pens value (for the standard stainless steel) and more for the fancier versions. I agree with what has been said about the nib drying out if the pen is left unused for a day or two, I have found this to be a standard deficiency with my other modern Parker pens (like my Parker Sonnet). The cap has air holes in it as a safety feature, I don't know if that is the only reason why the nib dries out, but it certainly does not help. Using the pen daily, the nib starts fairly consistently with little or no difficulty.

 

Another point about this pen is ink choice. I sometimes love heavier fountain pen inks, but they can cause skipping in this pen which seems to work better with thinner inks (such as Waterman Florida Blue, Waterman Blue/Black, J. Herbin inks). The reason why the pen skips (with heavy inks) is that the pen quickly uses the ink in the feed, but the heavier inks can stick inside the converter without dropping down. The thinner inks don't stick in the converter and flow consistently since the feed is continuously supplied with ink.

 

Overall, I love this pen because of its smooth wet nib, excellent build quality, and subtle elegance. I find it is a good work pen, but anyone looking for a fine nib won't be happy with it. Value wise, in comparison to another brushed stainless steel pen like the Lamy Studio, this pen is not the most expensive in its class as long as you want a medium nib.